Re: Non-defense Ada applications - answering several requests

[cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!wuarchive.wus tl.edu!conn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Richard Conn)]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

>In article <1993Jun5.152022.12888@linus.mitre.org> m23588@mwunix.mitre.org (Ri
chard Conn) writes:
>>One thing I've discovered is that Mike's list will probably never be
>>complete.  Companies simply do not want to disclose any information
>>they don't have to, especially in today's climate, which may give a
>>competator a competative advantage if he has any kind of insight into what
>>is going on internally.  Behind the scenes, I've seen many commercial
>>Ada success stories that I can't talk about (proprietary nondisclosure).

>I think it would be great if you could get permission from these companies
>to reveal that they are using Ada, and only that. Or something in the
>form of one of my 2-line listings. Maybe they would agree; you'll
>never know till you try.

>Another alternative that would not violate nondisclosure would be to
>sanitize the project down to "a major bank has written its ATM system
>in Ada" or something similar. Even that would help to dispel the myths.

Good point, Mike, but one problem is that even a tiny snippet like
that can be added to another snippet and so on to the point where
the entire picture is formed.  I have actually seen it go to the point
where a marketeer for company X parked outside the building used
for contractor interviews by the government, counting the number of
people coming and going, noting (when he knew) what company they
represented, noting how long they were interviewed, and all sorts of
things.  The marketeer for company Y was also in the same parking lot
doing the same thing.

Consequently, proprietary nondisclosure can, and has, covered
everything.

Rick

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Richard Conn, ASR and PAL Manager  |  conn@wuarchive.wustl.edu